Billions of mysterious jelly-fish-like creatures wash up on beaches along the west coast of the U.S

Since July, similar phenomena had been reported in the northern coast of Chile. In this case, not a common "jellyfish" .

The beaches of Arica (Chile) are covered with "Portuguese man o' war", in spanish "Fragata Portuguesa". This one in particular is dangerous.

Fragata Portuguesa reappeared and the bathroom was banned from beaches ariqueñas
The arrival of these invertebrate species led to the health authority to declare as affected area beaches in the region, ordering its closure until
further evaluation.
08/17/2014
#FRAGATAPORTUGUESA

The Port of Arica, this afternoon confirmed the presence of the hydrozoan Physalia also called GENDER (Fragata Portuguesa) in coastal Chinchorro
beach, Arica. This species of jellyfish is dangerous and contains a toxin that can cause damage to health or even death from cardiac arrest.

The arrival of these invertebrate species led to the health authority to declare as affected area beaches in the region, ordering its closure until
further evaluation of the Health Authority, for swimmers and those who participate in sport and recreational water activities. For now the Maritime
Authority is conducting constant monitoring on the waterfront in conjunction with the Health Authority.

The Maritime Authority called to take the following precautions to avoid contact with object hidrozoo this: no bathing or perform recreational games
in the affected beaches Medusa, do not touch these invertebrates beings and walking areas are using shoes and clothing prevent accidental contact with
whole bodies or parts of the Portuguese frigate which are dead. In case of contact Maritime Authority makes the following recommendations:

- Those with inadvertent contact with the jellyfish, must go to the nearest health center, taken as a first step to wash the area with saline or
diluted in water bicarbonate.

I wouldn't mess with this one :

The Portuguese man o' war (Physalia physalis), also known as the Portuguese man-of-war, man-of-war, or bluebottle is a marine cnidarian of the
family Physaliidae. Its venomous tentacles can deliver a painful sting.

I saw these just this last week in the Bay Area. I grew up there and have never seen them before so bent over to investigate. I sorta poked (gently)
with a napkin and its sail slumped over as if it was shriveling to protect itself. I think I killed it though. It seemed as if I did because the sail
was shut tight to its body and it seemed to shrink or disintegrate. Just from a slight touch. I looked around and saw a bunch more so called my son
over. We both just slumped our shoulders but I did tell him to be careful where he stepped as they clearly were a jelly like fish. New to me.

The article you linked (link)
mentions how the increase in Jellyfish populations are due (in part) to the acidification of the ocean due to excess CO2 in our atmosphere.

"Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans, caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. An
estimated 30–40% of the carbon dioxide released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans, rivers and lakes. To achieve chemical
equilibrium, some of it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid. Some of these extra carbonic acid molecules react with a water molecule to give a
bicarbonate ion and a hydronium ion, thus increasing ocean "acidity" (H+ ion concentration). Between 1751 and 1994 surface ocean pH is estimated to
have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14, representing an increase of almost 30% in H+ ion concentration in the world's oceans. Earth System
Models project that within the last decade ocean acidity exceeded historical analogs and in combination with other ocean biogeochemical changes could
undermine the functioning of marine ecosystems and many ocean goods and services." - en.wikipedia.org...

The article mentions how the Black Sea's biomass is now 95% jellyfish.

The article you linked (link)
mentions how the increase in Jellyfish populations are due (in part) to the acidification of the ocean due to excess CO2 in our atmosphere.

"Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans, caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. An
estimated 30–40% of the carbon dioxide released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans, rivers and lakes. To achieve chemical
equilibrium, some of it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid. Some of these extra carbonic acid molecules react with a water molecule to give a
bicarbonate ion and a hydronium ion, thus increasing ocean "acidity" (H+ ion concentration). Between 1751 and 1994 surface ocean pH is estimated to
have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14, representing an increase of almost 30% in H+ ion concentration in the world's oceans. Earth System
Models project that within the last decade ocean acidity exceeded historical analogs and in combination with other ocean biogeochemical changes could
undermine the functioning of marine ecosystems and many ocean goods and services." - en.wikipedia.org...

The article mentions how the Black Sea's biomass is now 95% jellyfish.

We should perhaps make jellyfish a consumer/food product, or for other usages.

Funny you should mention the other uses thing...just musing about how it looks after looking at the close up picture, and remembering they float on
the surface naturally exposed to the sunlight...i noticed that the concentric circular shape of the creature, just underneath its transparent fin,
looks very much like a solar concentrator aka a Fresnel lens....

What if this is how it derives some of it's energy?

Maybe the Fresnel lens concentrates the sunlight to fall onto it's opaque dark body underneath..perhaps it has pigments that act in a similar way to
Chlorophyll in plants?

The article did say the researchers know very little about this creature...maybe if we discovered there were specialised, sunlight absorbing cells in
its body, we might be able to make use of copying this ability in our solar energy devices to increase performance..?

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